Citizen Mom

Write hard, read FREE

Just in time for your Labor Day beach reading, here's an offer you can't refuse: Today and tomorrow on Amazon, you can get Howard Weaver's "Write Hard, Die Free" book FREE for your Kindle or Kindle app! Not only will it be well worth the price (har har), but it's a rollicking good read, full of colorful characters, vivid accounts of the "good old days" of newspaper journalism, and unflinching examinations of the times the good old days kind of sucked.

Who should read this? News nerds and newspaper folk, of course, but I'd also highly recommend this to my journalism students -- it's the kind of book to stoke that fire in your belly and get you in the right frame of mind for going out and afflicting the comfortable. 

I think what I liked most about "Write Hard, Die Free" is that it doesn't smack of that particular kind of hubris too many old-school newspaper guys have, that is, the notion that "real" journalism as THEY knew it is dead and things will never be that good again.

Howard Weaver just isn't wired that way -- yeah, he won a couple of Pulitzers, led a newsroom in a fight-to-the-death finish with a competitor, and got into the whole online news thing back when other newspapers were still debating whether to run color photos on Page One. But the sense I get is that he did those things not just to preserve newspapering as it was, but to sustain journalism for the future.

And there are lessons in the book for today's journalists too -- what it's like to run a startup publication and why it's good to fail, why professional disappointment is as instructive and valuable as success, and what kind of car not to drive when you're doing surveillance.

So get on that -- download it free for Kindle today and tomorrow here.  

Tell 'em Citizen Mom sent ya.

 

So, what *does* Naked Philly have to hide?

Y'know, besides the names of who owns, writes and edits their site?

Actually, it's no mystery: Naked Philly (ironic slogan: We've Got Nothing To Hide!) is owned and operated by Ori Feibush of OCF Realty (Ironic bio note: "Transparency is a word you hear a lot these days. And at OCF, it really means something.")

From my understanding of the conversation Feibush and I had today, the site serves two purposes. First, the Naked Philly blog is supposed to build buzz for the neighborhoods in which OCF Realty does business, which sounds a bit like the Philebrity/Blatstein model of early-days covert advertorial blogging. Second, Feibush told me, the Naked Philly site was launched in advance of some crazyass mapping tool he's almost ready to launch and which actually sounds pretty cool. 

The idea, he told me, was for the mapping tool to be ready to go around the same time as the Naked Philly site. It hasn't happened that way.

What has happened instead?  Since the demise of the much-beloved but short-lived Brownstoner Philly site in December, there's been a bit of a rush to fill the void in covering the city's land use/building/development/real estate scene -- an area of activity so ripe with news it practically falls from the trees. The site I work for, Plan Philly, is part of that world, though the mission there is a legitimately journalistic one. 

The way Feibush explained it, the Naked Philly site has sort of taken on a life of its own in the meantime, as people are genuinely interested in what's happening in the city's built environment. "The idea is to showcase properties in areas that otherwise wouldn't get noticed," he said. Fair enough.

Problem is, the folks "writing" the site (more on that in a second) have spent so much time reprinting press releases, running unsourced information and borrowing from others, they're building much more suspicion than credibility. Some of their posts are really good, but lacking essential information like where the information comes from or why anyone should believe it.

Earlier this week I called them out on lifting ideas and specific words from two of my stories. To his credit, Feibush responded promptly, appropriately and professionally to my concerns, telling me today it was "blatantly apparent" that his writer had used my work. It was a difficult conversation and I give him credit for it.

As for the writer, I agreed not to out her (though I do know who she is) because her name hadn't been on the original posts. That's called professional courtesy -- much like the practice of linking and crediting others' work when you reference it in your blog posts. See what I did there?

Anyway, I'm over it and willing to take Feibush at his word when he says the site never intended to come off as some sketchy cloak-and-dagger thing. And because I have seen some genuinely useful posts on Naked Philly, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and will keep reading. Perhaps you will, too.

TIRED TUNE: The Westboro Two-Step

From Phillyburbs.com:

"That is sort of the group's (Westboro Baptist Church) M.O., at least with us. They issue a press release that they are coming and then they don't show. They just want the publicity," the chief said.

In 2007, the group was a no-show at a military funeral in the township, said Dickinson. 

You know how this dance goes: Write story about Westboro threatening to picket a funeral, then follow with a story when they don't show. Either way, the lunatics win. 

 

Where the (journalism) jobs are

From the just-released State of the News Media 2011 report:

In 2010, however, some of the biggest new media institutions began to develop original newsgathering in a significant way. Yahoo added several dozen reporters across news, sports and finance. AOL had 900 journalists, 500 of them at its local Patch news operation (it then let go 200 people from the content team after the merger with Huffingtonpost). By the end of 2011, Bloomberg expects to have 150 journalists and analysts for its new Washington operation, Bloomberg Government. News Corp. has hired from 100 or 150, depending on the press reports, for its new tablet newspaper, The Daily, though not all may be journalists. Together these hires come close to matching the jobs in 2010 we estimate were lost in newspapers, the first time we have seen this kind of substitution.

Granted, it's not an even swap, as many of the lost newspaper jobs were higher-skilled, more experienced and better paid than ones in upstart local online sites. Then again, if you sent a reporter with decades of experience to cover a local zoning spat or a supermarket opening (the way a neighborhood Patch or a Yahoo! local might) it would be a waste of everyone's time and money. Yet both are needed.

So while I've been -- and will continue to be, when appropriate -- a critic of local "content providers" like Patch, etc., I'm also am in a position to work with eager young journalists out looking for their first and second jobs.  And the fact is, there are jobs for them right now, sites hiring people and paying them to do locally-focused journalistic work -- the same kind I started my newspaper career doing. It's not only Yelp-ish restaurant ratings and group coupons. 

This is not great news for mid-career newspaper reporters losing metro daily jobs, though even here, AOL and Yahoo! are both hiring far above entry level. This is simply too important, and too positive, a piece of the big puzzle of journalism right now to ignore. 

If the local online news networks survive, it surely follows that their journalistic standards and the quality of the work will mature. There's definitely no reason for them not to try.

BAD NEWS: It's Like Magic!

Somebody owes the Inquirer's Bob Moran an apology.
No, not somebody: Steve Keeley owes Bob Moran an apology.

For nearly a half-hour, as the verdicts in the Vince Fumo corruption trial rolled in earlier, the Fox29 reporter stood on the street in front of the courthouse reading Moran's liveblog from inside the courtroom, which was streaming on philly.com. Without ever actually attributing his "source," Keeley repeatedly leaned over for a closer look at his laptop, which was perched on the hood of a car to his left, reading details word-for-word on the air. The words popped up on screen, then *poof*! popped right out of Keeley's mouth, just like magic.

Twice, anchor Sheinelle Jones -- possibly hearing me screeching straight across the Twitterverse about the plagiarism-in-progress that was happening -- did try to clarify that the station was getting information from Philly.com. But only once once did Keeley haltingly point out he was reading from philly.com and he couldn't be bothered to say it was Moran's work, despite the fact that every update on the liveblog started with the words "Robert Moran:" That kind of obfuscation takes work, people.

Now that we're all finished debating whether Jon Stewart's a journalist, how about we start asking whether our journalists are journalists. It shouldn't be for me to defend the Inquirer's honor, but the paper pays my husband's salary so one could say it's out of sheer self-interest that I'm picking this bone. Then again, you could say it's because I'm a blogger who's frankly sick of hearing how bloggers are ripping off the newspapers. At least bloggers give the courtesy of a link. Or if you like, say I'm angry as someone who's trying to teach journalism students that they're committing their lives to a worthy profession, one with, y'know, rules and ethics and whatnot.

Does belated, half-assed attribution excuse Fox29 from ripping off the newspaper's reporting even as it was happening? And why have an anchor then keep going back to Keeley asking for more info when she could have been checking the liveblog herself right from the desk?

I know, I know, you're wondering why I'm getting all bothered by the quality of local TV news -- what am I expecting, right? Simple: I actually like Fox29's news operation and appreciate especially how they've embraced Twitter and used it to connect with their audience. They asked for feedback, and to their credit, they paid attention. Well, Sheinelle did, anyway.

MEOW MIX: Queen Of The Twittstream

Today I give you three items janked directly out of my Twitter stream and unzipped, as it were, for your perusal:

* The big peanut butter recall of '09 has been a big story, as more items -- including Kellogg and General Mills crackers and Little Debbie snacks -- were added to the list. (Fear not, Philly peeps, Tastykake says your KandyKakes are OK.) But what about the Girl Scout cookies? Dear God, think of the Do-Si-Dos! Feast in peace, people:

The peanut butter used in Tagalongs and Do-si-dos and other Girl Scout cookies comes from  sources other than the Peanut Corp. of America, which is the focus of the government’s investigation, the bakers say in statements posted on their Web sites.

* The Orlando Sentinel's Moms At Work blog (@momsatwork) stumbles upon the news every slacker mom has been waiting for: Research shows a messy house is actually good for your kids. It's right there in the February issue of Cookie magazine, Kim Hays writes:

Children actually BENEFIT from living in a messy house.

"An important reason to have a messier home is just plain physical health," David H. Freeman, co-author of A Perfect Mess, told the magazine. "It's counterintuitive, but the more we know about asthma, germs and the immune system, the more we understand that part of being safe is being exposed to germs and building up a tolerance to them at a young age."

There's more. There are cognitive benefits to playing (or even working) in a messy home. Freeman explains that when you're in a messy space, you "get to see a lot of things in one place, which can bring about random stimulation. That's a big part of creativity."

He advises parents to back off the notion of having children put away one toy before playing with another. "Children and adults have more ideas when they have a lot of things in front of them. They are less restricted."

See, I told you those things in my upstairs hallway aren't piles of dirty laundry. They're cognitive research materials! Like, duh.

* Interviews conducted over the Twitter (please, don't call it a Twinterview) were the rage for a second. First, FEMA Administrator David Paulison held a press conference through the agency's handle @femainfocus, fielding and answering questions in 140-character bursts. Read the discussion here.

FEMA created its Twitter account in October and so far has used it for general-interest broadcast type stuff like links to preparedness guides and heads-up on disaster aid deadlines. When I asked @femainfocus a few weeks back, they told me real-time messages in emergencies would be handled by state and local OEMs, but I have to believe a large enough roster of followers on Twitter, MySpace and YouTube will come in handy next time there's a national disaster of some kind and people are looking for a direct source of info.

Then, former Daily News photog Jim MacMillan, aka @jimmacmillan, held a Q-and-A with Philadelphia Weekly about how he's using his iPhone and social media tools like Twitter and TwitPic to cover spot news. It became a national discussion a few days later when Flight 1549 water-landed on the Hudson River and passengers' iPhone photos provided the first image.

Two Unrelated Things That Are Like, Duhh

1.) "Go to the black Macys if you want plus-sized formal gowns," from Consumerist.

The story told by "Amanda" sounds a little bit far-fetched in that I doubt any Macy's employee would run on at the mouth like that.  But, as a woman who has bought clothing on both sides of the plus-size threshold, I can tell you there is a morsel of truth in this. Though it doesn't really follow that if black women are plus-sized they must be poor -- why would black women supposedly need plus-sized suits and party wear if they're broke? Maybe it's about the fact that African-American church ladies tend to dress up more than your average white Lutheran? (It works in opposite ways, too -- my MIL tells a story about trying to buy size 10 ladies shoes in a store in New York with a large Asian population, and no dice.)

Big girls, what say you?

2.) "D.C. Bureau Cuts = Journalism 2.0 Opportunity?" 

Every time I hear about D.C. or state capitol buro cuts by newspapers, I think about how easily the right online operations could step into the vacuum, start kicking arse and continue the reinvention of the news business. Think about how any laid-off or bought-out newspaper folks are going hyper-local or to startup news sites. Of course it'll take money, but some smart venture capitalist/would-be media mogul or co-operative could set up a shop, get some people credentialed and start covering statehouses and Congress themselves. A bunch of smaller Politico-type sites that will one day join up, become a giant media conglomerate and collapse onto itself the way newspaper chains are right now, but hey that's decades from now so . . . Anyway my point is, the days when it only "counts" if it comes from a newspaper are over, poopies. Again, like duh.

'Lois, I dropped my pencil . . . '

Great cartoon by Rob Tornoe, for Politicker. I especially like the comments, which suggest reasons why Lois Lane might have kept her job and not ol' Kent. "Lois gets to stay because of what she does for Perry." Cute, right? Actually, if Lois saved her job it was prolly because she made so much less than Kent to begin with, but hey who's counting!

Anyhoo, because I love a one-liner as much as the next guy, how about:

* Finally, Clark knew what he would blog about.

BOOK 'ER: The Phone Call That Killed Alycia Lane's 'Journalism' Career

Talk about buzzkill.

This time yesterday, I sat down to write one of my snarky open letter thingies to Alycia Lane. Something about how it's never OK to punch a cop, even a bitchy female one who's getting in your face, but that if Lane was trying to exert her journalistic rights in taking pictures of an altercation, then maybe -- just maybe -- she'd be able to save her $700,000 a-year job. I mean, around the time of Rich Eisen-gate, I started to really believe someone up in NYC (a frenemy from Ronkonkoma  still upset that she didn't get to sit at Lane's lunch table in high school, maybe?) had it in for her.  Oh, I was having fun with it, alright: Overpaid TV babe + low-rent DJ boyfriend + alcohol + cops? It writes itself, people.

Then Lane called the governor, and the whole thing went from you-ignorant-slutville to career suicide. Was Missus Booker's post-bailout call to Rendell about the city's gun crisis, or the casino controversy, or why the PPA hasn't fulfilled its obligations to Philadelphia's public schools? Because any one of the above would have been a legitimate reason for the most visible (and likely among the highest-paid) female journalist in town to ring up the governor. Pleading your case to save your ass isn't, even using the Mississippi River-broad definition of "journalist" necessary when discussing local news anchors, or if you use the "Ukee Washington" rationale -- meaning, why not go right to the top?

As of this writing, Lane is inexplicably still on staff at CBS3 and somewhere, Gail Shister's brain is about to explode. (There was also talk of Lane trying to call Sen. Vince Fumo, who famously (and unsuccessfully) once tried to woo Lane, but that seems less ethically troubling than it does colossally desperate. Forget the bikini pics, I'd pay good money for a tape of that phone call.)

By 11 p.m. Monday, Lane had been excised from CBS3 promos and the station's holiday special and is off the air for the forseeable future, but she still has her job, her online bio box still listing Diane Sawyer and Judy Woodruff as professional role models. Like I said, it almost writes itself. Stay tuned -- I'm sure there will be an update about this on tonight's news broadcasts, hopefully after the updates on the 4-year-old who shot himself in the neck and the Conshohocken mom stomped to death over takeout food.

PS: Best line on the whole sordid scandal, courtesy of one of Gawker's commenters and re: whether Lane called the female cop "fucking dyke" or "fucking dyke bitch": "Did she suck Rich Eisen's dick with that mouth?"

4PM UPDATE

* Hot off the press, Karen Heller's take -- classily free of dick talk! -- is here.

Then Lane phoned Gov. Edward Rendell "to tell her side of the story," according to her a spokesman. In journalism, this is worse than hitting a cop.

Reporters, even exquisitely lit television anchors, are supposed to cover politicians not hit them up for assistance. If Channel 3 is truly in the practice of journalism, the managers shouldn't have a qualm about saving $700,000 next year.

 

 

Phawker: We Make Stars!

Props out the wazoo to Jeff Deeney, for scoring the cover of this week's Philadelphia Weekly with the story of the 3200 block of Hurley Street. Regular Phawker readers will recognize Hurley from Jeff's continuing "Today I Saw" series, which I have the distinct pleasure of editing. Right on, right on.

And the SugarTown sugar mama herself, Sara Sherr, gets a nod in the Best of Music Writing 2006  for her piece, Death Of A Salesperson, which I also had the good fortune to edit. And I'm even more fortunate to call Miz Sherr a friend. [hat tip, Philebs]